


valar dohaeris

by recipefortragedy



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Nothing big, some spoilers for the books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-20 00:10:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1489513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recipefortragedy/pseuds/recipefortragedy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s got nothing but the clothes on her back and a tight-lipped smile she gives to friends and enemies alike.</p><p>A brief character study of Arya in Braavos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	valar dohaeris

A barefoot girl treads lightly through the city of Braavos  _swift as a deer quiet as a shadow_.

She’s got nothing but the clothes on her back and a tight-lipped smile she gives to friends and enemies alike. The little girl has nothing to lose, not even a name. Men have called her Nan, Arry, Salty, Cat of the Canals, Beth.

These are just words. They hold no meaning for her.

Men, she found, are easy to fool. Just tell them a sad story and they will think it true; how could a girl so young and so plain possibly have the gall to lie to them? They think her stupid, revealing themselves to be fools.

This girl does not make the same mistake. She knows better than to believe what others tell her. She weaves her lies the way she sees a sad old man weave wicker baskets by the sea every evening, carefully and with precision. For both of them it’s nothing more than a means of getting by.

Lying and killing are her trade now. And she is skilled at both.

The little girl spots the man she was looking for, the man whose name has been whispered to the God of Many Faces. She catches his eye and gives him a tight-lipped smile.

While the girl does not have a name of her own she knows many others:  _ser gregor dunsen raff the sweetling ser ilyn ser meryn queen cersei_.

Valar morghulis.

All men must die. She is only here to serve.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm bored and i'm lonely, talk to me at [warisforsurviving.tumblr.com](http://warisforsurviving.tumblr.com/)


End file.
